Wednesday, February 27, 2008

PKR Manifesto: The Best of All

PKR: 'A New Dawn for Malaysia

Parti KeAdiLan Rakyat (PKR) led by its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim has unveiled a five-point manifesto that provides the most pragmatic and practical promises for the rakyat.

The Manifesto is, by far, the most impressive compared to those from DAP, PAS and Barisan Nasional.

The manifesto, with the tagline "A New Dawn for Malaysia", pledge to:

- Make Malaysia a truly constitutional state for all, guaranteeing basic human rights, rule of law and an independent judiciary.

- Create a vibrant economy for all, eliminating discriminatory policies, corruption and wastage.

- Make the streets and neighborhoods of Malaysia safer for all, through creating a professional and neutral police force.

- Make Malaysia more affordable for all, by lowering petrol prices, ensuring tolls and tariffs will never be raised unreasonably and by other policies.

- Increase the standard of Malaysian education for all, including higher salaries for educators.

PKR also promised to implement a minimum wage of RM1,500 in the manifesto. The party also plans to do away with the New Economic Policy.

As a Malaysian Citizen, the 5-points emphasized our critical concerns of the nation's well-being and aspiration. The DAP manifesto did not impress me. The BN manifesto is but tons of repeated promises which was analogous with the previous, and of which the contrary had happened. BN promise an all out mission against corruption, and what was achieved was an all out to be corrupt from the highest led by his son-in-law. The 2004 manifesto promises to reduce crime and improve educational excellence; instead the public universities slide into oblivion and crime had increased manifold; even children are not safe to playgrounds and women are not safe in shopping centers.

Would we give PKR a chance to prove themselves? Why not? Or would we live with the corrupt system and adapted into the system to be part of it.

23 comments:

Hope said...

You are right Mave, this is the most realistic and judicious manifesto among the fours.

Will PKR deliver its promises if they win? Will PKR be like BN - promises after promises, but nothing is being done?
No one knows , but if we don't give them a chance, we will never know..

Jefus said...

why be troubled at all by a manifesto from a minority political party? What needs to be done at the present moment in time is to oppose.

A sound opposition front that can hold its ground and provide a challenge to the ruling government. I would have loved to see a manifesto stating how they would have opposed. What needs attention, and the like.

There are several issues that need immediate attention already. Corruption, the slide in educational standards, the economy, rampant crime rates, - how can the opposition influence this? In what way?

That in my view is the reality on the ground.

Helen said...

Hmm, i agree PKR sounds the most promising on the whole. I totally agree with what Jefus commented.

Manifestos and promises can come later. Must just get the opposition on the right path to a louder voice first. :-)

Anonymous said...

minimum 1500 wage - is pkr out of its mind !!!! 1500 for cashier, promoter, cleaner ??? does pkr stooge knows about economy (maklumlah, their leader anwar is malay studies, just like his counterpart with islamic studieS)?? the manifesto is enticing, i'm sure it will backfire - it puts out competition, closes down shops, increases inflation. why not pkr to unveil instead of "not-possible-to-achieve" minimum wage, the party dish out loans, subsidies, low-cost-house rent, scholarships, bursary, that help lift poverty ??

Anonymous said...

denzook,
RM1500 are not unrealistic. A Singapore janitor take home more than that even before converting to ringgit!

But the process to implement it will be lengthy.

Bare in mind that, one "cheap" worker are not AS cheap as you think. Because those import hard labor from Burma,Pakistan,etc country, never though of hidden cost to the society. We need to pay the medicare,forex outflow,epidemic risk (e.g. TB return to many country that eradicate it for decades).

In addition, because relies on cheap labor, there is little progress to increase EFFICIENCY and apply technology.

Come to efficiency, do you know that register a company in Malaysia has a cost of 18.1% GDP? Doing the same things, Singapore make it with 0.8% of GDP.

If Malaysia government servants are able to increase efficiency and reduce cost by 50% (9%/GDP), the country can cut halves of the workforce and give a 100% pay rise.

Don't say it is impossible before you study the process!

Anonymous said...

Just put in more opposition voice. With more checks and balances, the rats in the wooden cabinet will automatically behave.

Jefus said...

name and shame does not work - there are live specimens still walking the streets!

throwing the book at them also does not work - everybody's related to one another or buxom buddies.

asking them to resign - they've never heard of the samurai code of conduct

that's why we need a very strong opposition.

Maverick SM said...

Hopeful,

WE have the same ideological wave.

Jefus,

A Manifesto provides the Vision and Mission of a political party's direction and ideology. From it we can observe their political philosophy and ideology; it wasn't to be read literal.

Helen,

I agree with you.

Maverick SM said...

Denzook,

$1,500 is not something absurd; it's practical. In fact those who work at Supermarket as cashier or sales are earning something like $800-$1,200. It's not far off and it's a good forward looking mission.

Moo_t,

The cost of employing Bangla, Indon and Burmese are not cheap. In the construction industry they get paid of approx RM1,500-$2,500 per month. Only the Maid market is less than RM1,000 gross. Of course adding up, it would have cost roughly RM1,000-RM1,200.

Maverick SM said...

Hasilox,

You are absolutely right.

Jefus,

That's because we adopt autocratic system of government in the name of "Controlled Democracy" to legitimized it.

Anonymous said...

denzook...
try to live on RM700 salary per month..then feel if RM1500 is realistic.

What is your salary? RM200 per month or are you scavenging on your relatives that you have no need to work. Not everybody is as lucky as you.

Anonymous said...

yes, below 2k will be disastrous in klang valley. but what i'm implying is that if gov to enforce rm1500 minimum wage, it will of course applies to every malaysians, and try to picture at employer side. imagine those starbuck and any fast food restaurant has to hire with rm1500. and supermarket for promoters and storekeeper. and also temporary clerk in office and banks. these employers are forced to adhere to the law to pay rm1500 for ppl who are in skool/univ holiday waiting for their examination (spm) result. and this will certainly encourage employer to take in foreigners rather local! the raise will also impact the price of the goods and services.

Why not gov to try other scheme to lift poverty (like interest-free loan, or something) rather put the pressure to employer to fork out more expenses when the economy is not doing very well.....

Anonymous said...

A Singapore janitor take home more than that even before converting to ringgit!

yeah, but that's not because of minimum pay/wage! in fact, i don't think singapore got minimum wage rule, even it has, it might < 1k!

warrior2 said...

The PKR manisfesto is like the BN`s is not doing all those stuffs! On top of that I am laughing actually when I read them because these are mere "ideas" without really knowing what they are talking about.
Minimum wage of RM1500 have clear implication throughout.
Whats this about professional adn neutral police force? The current one is "amateruish"? and not neutral?

Anonymous said...

a supermarket cashier able to earn more than 1500 not because of their basic pay, but because of OT. some have to work more than 10 hrs, and even have to come back on sunday and holidays. if minimum pay 1500 to enforced (basic pay), and with OT, the employer will be pokai soon..... and speaking of janitor, some are contract and not stick to one premise. do you think those aunty work as janitor in only 1 premise 7am-4pm earn more than 1k ????

Aleckii said...

Interesting... How about DAP's manifesto? I haven't read anything about it yet. Though in Sarawak, I dare say DAP will once again win majority seats, haha!

Hidup DAP!

Anonymous said...

aleckil, goto : http://jedyoong.wordpress.com/
I've always known DAP to come out with the best manifesto as far as comparative manifesto goes.

Too bad, Mav, it doesn't impress you. Income is always relative to the cost of living. Having a katuk governance that squeezes at every opportunity makes mockery of salary increases.

Anonymous said...

strange is the manifesto only worked if the oppos is in power with MPs > 50%, not 33%. and they keep chanting deny 2/3 but not out bn, out bn.....

why they don come out a realistic manisfeto that feasible with >33% majority. though the manifesto is "typical", recycled from previous election and not much different from bn, at least bn is already proven failure since they have been given 50yrs but still come out s*it that not meet their manifesto..

Anonymous said...

To take care of the Grassroots
An overall package need to be set
to include Medical, Education, Housing, Transportation and Food.
These need long term planning for stability in long run including tax to ensure a minimum wage can really support the Grassroot!
These need a lot of money!
These can cut the living standard and so any salary in force or be increased will not be eaten up by inflation!
Inflation will blow not only Grassroots but all Malaysians!

Candy is sweet but cannot be taken as Food!

Maverick SM said...

Artchan,

Even if you earn RM2,000 and stay in KL, you'll have difficulty to survive.

Toll-charges, car parking, petrol, house rental, utility bills, and food for breakfast, lunch and dinner would sum up more than the salary minus EPF and Tax.

Denzook,

From philosophical point of view, it is possible to maintain $1,500 minimum wage as statistics could prove that the cost will not amount to more than RM2 billion extra over the current minimum wage.

Warrior,

It is not impossible to maintain RM1,500 minimum wage and it will do no harm to the nation's economy. I can assure you that economic theory will justify my statement.

The question of neutral police force is about non-partisan politics from government servants and uniform forces which we can observed are tilted/inclined towards the patronage.

Aleckii,

You can read DAP's manifesto at Kit Siang's blog.

Wits0,

We differed in our view on this manifesto thing; but we are entitled to differ.

Sharing,

Where have you been? You had been absent from here; and you caused me anxieties...

Anonymous said...

Maverick,

Excuse me for not dropping in as I am conducting a research on Malaysian Shits!
To understand why those without Heart & Soul can still shit!
Those can shit from the Top instead of the normal course!
Those shit when they should be the one to stop the shit!
And, amazingly a lot are paid to shit!
Cruelly, to find out that I am one of those paying to get shit!

Is Malaysia in the progress of farming more BULLS?
To prepare for BIOGAS to fear oil be cut soon?

I need some time to figure out
what should be the next name after Bolehland?

I am think of going to Spain to get the necessary training!!
Or should take Zoology instead of Psychology!
So to be able to make friends even with Monkeys!

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